Miami-Dade jail bus crash causes 80 inmates to miss court dates

Eighty inmates failed to make it to court Friday after a Miami-Dade jail bus crashed into another in a minor fender bender early Friday on the Dolphin Expressway.

The two corrections buses had left the Metro West Detention Center, at 13850 NW 41st St., bound for the main jail and Miami’s criminal courthouse. At 6:20 a.m., on the expressway, one bus rear ended the other at Northwest 87th Avenue.

No one had to be hospitalized although the inmates are being “medically reviewed,” said Janelle Hall, a corrections spokeswoman. One corrections officer complained about neck pain and is being examined at a hospital, she said.

The crash nevertheless caused confusion at the Richard E. Gerstein Justice Building, where scores of defendants never showed.